Persad-Bissessar: PNM failed the public by opposing Budget

Shas­tri Boodan

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ac­cused the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of dis­ap­point­ing the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go through its con­duct dur­ing the re­cent Bud­get de­bate, in­clud­ing its fail­ure to sup­port the Gov­ern­ment’s Bud­get in Par­lia­ment.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was speak­ing at the Cou­va South Grounds on the sec­ond and fi­nal night of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion’s (T&TEC) Di­vali cel­e­bra­tions. She crit­i­cised the Op­po­si­tion’s con­duct dur­ing the par­lia­men­tary pro­ceed­ings.

She said Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters and MPs had spent sev­er­al days an­swer­ing ques­tions from Op­po­si­tion mem­bers dur­ing the ex­am­i­na­tion of the Bud­get es­ti­mates and de­fend­ing their per­for­mance and spend­ing plans.

The Prime Min­is­ter praised the Gov­ern­ment’s par­lia­men­tary team for re­spond­ing to ques­tions dur­ing the Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee’s de­tailed re­view of ex­pen­di­ture and rev­enue es­ti­mates. She said the rep­re­sen­ta­tives had worked long hours through­out the week, with some ses­sions ex­tend­ing late in­to the night.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­cused the Op­po­si­tion of walk­ing out of Par­lia­ment and aban­don­ing the con­stituents who had elect­ed its mem­bers.

She al­so crit­i­cised the Op­po­si­tion’s po­si­tion dur­ing the Bud­get vote, ar­gu­ing that fail­ure to pass the Bud­get would have af­fect­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s abil­i­ty to fund es­sen­tial pub­lic ser­vices, in­clud­ing salaries for po­lice of­fi­cers, teach­ers and pub­lic ser­vants, as well as hos­pi­tals and T&TEC.

The Gov­ern­ment se­cured enough votes to pass the Bud­get, she said, thank­ing vot­ers across the coun­try for giv­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and To­ba­go Part­ners a man­date to gov­ern.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed af­ter her ad­dress, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was not sur­prised by the Op­po­si­tion’s ac­tions, ar­gu­ing that its mem­bers ap­peared de­ter­mined to op­pose the Gov­ern­ment.

“I should say I’m not sur­prised be­cause they see their role be­cause there is op­po­si­tion. They must op­pose every­thing. There are some things you can let go that are good for every­body,” she said.

She cit­ed the Op­po­si­tion’s vote against the Chil­dren’s Life Fund Bill as an­oth­er ex­am­ple of what she de­scribed as its fail­ure to sup­port mea­sures in the pub­lic in­ter­est.

“When they vot­ed against the Chil­dren’s Life Fund Bill, they vot­ed against chil­dren. To­day they have vot­ed against the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, so I’m not sur­prised,” she said.

Asked whether she was dis­ap­point­ed, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was not, not­ing that the Gov­ern­ment had enough sup­port in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to pass the Bud­get.

“For­tu­nate­ly the peo­ple gave us a man­date, we have suf­fi­cient num­bers in the House, we can pass our bud­get and get the mon­ey to spend for the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives would re­con­vene on Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 30, while the Sen­ate’s Bud­get de­bate would be­gin on Mon­day. Sen­a­tors would ex­am­ine the Bud­get doc­u­ments be­fore pro­ceed­ings con­tin­ued in the House, she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so an­nounced that she would leave Trinidad and To­ba­go on No­vem­ber 2 to at­tend the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM) in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da.

She de­scribed the meet­ing as an im­por­tant en­gage­ment, with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 52 na­tions ex­pect­ed to at­tend.

“The year has gone so fast. So I’ll be away for three or four days to at­tend that very, very im­por­tant Com­mon­wealth meet­ing. Fifty-two na­tions will be rep­re­sent­ed at that meet­ing, so it’s a very im­por­tant meet­ing for us to go to. No hes­i­ta­tion,” she said.

Works Min­is­ter Jear­lean John will act as Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing her ab­sence, Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed.

Dur­ing her ad­dress, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so com­mend­ed T&TEC and its lead­er­ship for work to im­prove pub­lic ser­vices, par­tic­u­lar­ly the re­pair of street­lights.

She said more than 30,000 street­lights had been re­paired, cred­it­ing Padarath and oth­er Gov­ern­ment mem­bers as­so­ci­at­ed with the com­mis­sion.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Gov­ern­ment had passed a Bud­get that would help set­tle out­stand­ing ar­rears owed to T&TEC work­ers, in­clud­ing pay­ments re­lat­ed to call-outs.

She added that work was al­so un­der way through the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty and the Na­tion­al Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty Com­pa­ny, in­clud­ing re­pairs to schools.

In her Di­vali mes­sage, Per­sad-Bisses­sar en­cour­aged par­ents to pri­ori­tise their chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion, whether through aca­d­e­m­ic stud­ies or tech­ni­cal train­ing.

She spoke about her son Chris, who re­cent­ly grad­u­at­ed with a law de­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies af­ter pre­vi­ous­ly com­plet­ing a Bach­e­lor of Ed­u­ca­tion de­gree. He had left sec­ondary school be­fore com­plet­ing his stud­ies but lat­er pur­sued qual­i­fi­ca­tions in­de­pen­dent­ly, com­plet­ed A-lev­els, earned a diplo­ma in law and went on to ob­tain his de­grees, she said.

Her niece al­so grad­u­at­ed with a law de­gree at the same cer­e­mo­ny, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She urged par­ents not to give up on their chil­dren, re­gard­less of the chal­lenges they face.

“Ed­u­ca­tion, I tell every­one, is the pass­port out of pover­ty. It is the on­ly pass­port out of pover­ty. Ed­u­ca­tion is the on­ly key for a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life,” she said.

She en­cour­aged young peo­ple to at­tend school, con­tin­ue learn­ing and make the most of ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties. Chil­dren, she said, rep­re­sent­ed both their fam­i­lies’ fu­ture and the fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­clud­ed by wish­ing the gath­er­ing a blessed Di­vali, in­vok­ing the bless­ings of Moth­er Lak­sh­mi and ex­tend­ing greet­ings to those at­tend­ing the cel­e­bra­tions.